on the night of the infamous Brooklyn Theater Fire in 1876), and she had eventually acquired the US rights to the play. In securing the film rights, Griffith had to wrangle with Miss Claxton, who for unknown reasons seems to have been reluctant to allow the story to be filmed a third time. When Griffith completed his film for release, a rival German version of the story had been made (Claxton owned foreign film rights as well) and was being prepared for release in the US at the same time as Griffith's version. Griffith bought out the US distribution rights to the German version so that it could not conflict with the earning potential of his own film. Release The film was originally released on 14 reels, although a 12-reel abridged version was made available to theaters a few months later. Despite Griffith's reputation at the box office, the film was not a financial success. Critical reception The New York Times wrote: "As the vivid scenes of the historically colored melodrama flashed one after another on the screen everyone surely felt that Griffith was himself again" but added "The seasoned spectator, no matter how he may let himself go, knows that every delay is a device to heighten the suspense and every advantage given the rescuers is calculated to evoke his cheers (...) whatever he does, he is not surprised when the girl is saved". In a retrospective review, Pauline Kael described it as an epic spectacle, "a marvellous, expensively produced mixture of melodrama and sentimentality, with duels, kidnappings, the storming of the Bastille, and Lillian Gish being saved from the guillotine." She made the assessment that it was "not one of Griffith's greatest", but it nonetheless contains memorable sequences of "theatrical sublimity". In popular culture In Spike Jones' skit "The Late Late Late Movies" (Mercury F-55191), "Billy Playtex" announces that night's feature as "'Orphans of the Storm'", starring the Gish Sisters! And introducing, Elmo Lincoln!" (Actually, Lincoln did not appear in this film.) This is a parody of the fact many stations would air very old movies (even forty-year-old silent pictures), as the movie studios forbade TV from playing first-run features at the time the record was made in 1960. Main cast Lillian Gish as Henriette Girard Dorothy Gish as Louise Joseph Schildkraut as Chevalier de Vaudrey Frank Losee as Count de Linières Catherine Emmet as Countess de Linières